Preity gets Sallu on SRK's show!

By Hindustan Times

Mumbai, Aug. 20 -- My guests are my friends and I don't intend to create any controversies around any of them," says actor-anchor-producer Preity Zinta, whose first chat show and second TV show, within the calendar year -Up, Close And Personal With PZ -is on floors and ready to go on air next week.

Her guest-list for the show, likely to run into 10 episodes each of which will be aired once a week, on the new Bollywood channel UTV Stars, includes arch-rivals, actor-producers Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, apart from Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Arjun Rampal, Ajay Devgn and Farhan Akhtar.

Preity shot with SRK on Thursday evening. Her first-ever guest on the set, however, was Akshay, followed by Farhan and Arjun. And talks are on to rope in four more names, including some of the host's female friends too. When asked if the guest-list and her conversations with each one (especially SRK and Salman) could, at some level, spark off 'talks' within the industry circles, the host asserts, "I share an excellent rapport with each one of my guests. The set has been designed like a house. The concept is that every week, I have a guest over for a cup of coffee and some fun activities. I don't intend to excavate their private lives, their relations with others, and so on. Every chat show doesn't need to have controversies and personal remarks to become a hit. And I don't want to encourage any 'talks'."

Prod her on what she had in mind while talking to her subjects, and she says, "The show hasn't started yet. And I am contractually bound not to reveal the conversations."

Currently, Simi Garewal's India's Most Desirable is one of the most-known celebrity chat shows on air. Before that, there was Koffee With Karan 3 that sparked off loads of controversies. So much so, that after the show wrapped up, host-filmmaker Karan Johar nearly called off his friendship with filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Preity has been on Simi's Rendezvous and Karan's coffee show in the past.

Did she turn to either for anchoring tips? "I haven't watched India's Most Desirable. Simi, I know, is a host who gets these intimate conversations just right. Karan is a buddy and he suggested some really cool titles. But I haven't imported ideas for my show," says Preity. "As for Karan, I didn't ask him for anchoring tips because I anyway talk a lot and I have some intrinsic qualities of my own, which should see me through this show."